OpenAI is for profit 💰, Tesla's backup CEOs 💼, Uber's 100k robotaxis 🚕

OpenAI successfully converted to a more traditional corporate structure. It has turned its for-profit subsidiary into a public-benefit corporation ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

Sign Up |Advertise|View Online TLDR Together With TLDR 2025-10-29 Enterprise-grade or and enterprising solutions (Sponsor) Is your payments provider designed to grow with you - or is it holding you back with unscalable tech, lack of innovation, or inflexible solutions? With Marqeta, launch payments experiences without choosing between innovation and scale. Marqeta combines the scale and reliability of proven payments infrastructure with the flexibility and innovation of a modern platform—so you can move faster, reduce risk, and grow with confidence. From optimizing spend and cash flow to building seamless, rewards-driven customer experiences, Marqeta's solutions have you covered. Fuel your ambitions with Marqeta 📱 Big Tech & Startups OpenAI Completes For-Profit Transition, Pushing Microsoft Above $4 Trillion Valuation (6 minute read) OpenAI has successfully converted to a more traditional corporate structure. It has turned its for-profit subsidiary into a public-benefit corporation. The new structure will make it easier for the company to raise money and attract talent, and could clear the path for an initial public offering. OpenAI continues to face litigation over its corporate status. Microsoft owns a 27% stake in the new public-benefit corporation. Tesla Eyes Internal CEO Candidates If Musk Leaves Over $1 Trillion Pay Vote (6 minute read) Tesla is prepared to name a new Chief Executive Officer from inside the company if shareholders reject Elon Musk's proposed $1 trillion pay package and he steps down. The unprecedented pay package will be voted on at the company's annual meeting on November 6. It is designed to incentivize Musk and ensure that development around AI and other new products happens within Tesla rather than with one of Musk's multiple other ventures. Shareholders will also vote on whether to invest in xAI at the annual meeting. 🚀 Science & Futuristic Technology Nvidia and Uber Say They're Building a 100,000-Vehicle Robotaxi Network (2 minute read) Nvidia and Uber plan to start rolling out a fleet of robotaxis in 2027. The companies are aiming for 100,000 vehicles, but there is no timeline yet for when they will reach that level of scale. The robotaxis will use Nvidia's latest in-vehicle computer, the Drive AGX Hyperion 10, which Nvidia claims makes cars ready for level-4 automation. It will enable vehicles to drive completely autonomously within designated areas. I Tried the Robot That's Coming to Live With You. It's Still Part Human. (8 minute read) 1X Technologies' Neo robot is now available for preorder, with delivery expected in 2026. It costs $20,000, but the company will also offer a $499 monthly rental plan with a six-month minimum commitment. At launch, the robot may require remote operation from company representatives to get tasks done. Videos of the robot in action are available in the article. 💻 Programming, Design & Data Science The AI that powers IT + security at Notion, Replit, Vercel, and Lovable (Sponsor) Iru is the AI-powered platform used by the world's fastest-growing companies to secure their users, apps, and devices. With Iru, you can secure Mac, Windows, & Android, enable passwordless single sign-on to every app, and stay audit-ready for SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Iru collapses the stack and gives IT & Security time and control back. Find out more at iru.com How Agentic Payments are Reinventing a 90s Internet Standard (21 minute read) HTTP's placeholder status code, 402: Payment Required, was meant to make payments as seamless as loading an image or video. It has been left undefined for years. Instead of protocol-native micropayments, the web economy was forced down the path of advertising, walled gardens, and awkward credit card forms. HTTP 402 has recently resurfaced as the foundation of an emerging agent-driven economy. New standards like x402 and h402 may finally make payments as native and invisible as information itself. The New Calculus of AI-based Coding (13 minute read) Feature flags are a powerful mechanism for services delivering new capabilities. They can be especially effective in helping control the blast radius in case of unforeseen problems with new features. However, they come with operational and cognitive costs, so it's important to have a way to bound the number of feature flags within the code base at any point in time. Feature flag toggles are no different than any other code changes, as they change the behavior of the service, so consider using the same mechanisms for deployment. 🎁 Miscellaneous Meta's $75B AI Infrastructure Bet: Inside the Biggest Cloud Deals of 2025 (13 minute read) Meta is now spending more than a third of every dollar earned on AI infrastructure. The company announced $75.5 billion in infrastructure deals in just three months - more than most countries spend on their entire tech sector in a decade. It is betting that AI will improve ad targeting, improve new products, and create infrastructure business. However, if AI doesn't deliver proportional revenue growth, Meta is stuck with $600 billion in sunk costs, 16-year lease commitments, and massive depreciation expenses. OpenAI's Promise to Stay in California Helped Clear the Path for Its IPO (7 minute read) OpenAI spent months making the case to regulators that it was the economic heart of the California economy, and that it would be willing to leave if its plan to convert to a simpler corporate structure was blocked. When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke with California Attorney General Rob Bonta nearly two weeks ago to discuss the issue, Altman made it clear that he was committed to his home state and that OpenAI wouldn't sue it or leave it. The discussion proved decisive - Bonta's office ended its extended investigation into the company. The final deal included a pledge for OpenAI to remain in California and expand its presence there. ⚡ Quick Links Coursera Cybersecurity Month Offer: Become a Certified Security Analyst (Sponsor) Looking to boost your cybersecurity skills? Coursera can help you level up your career with self-paced learning programs. See your recommended credentials and start learning today. Help, My Boss Started Programming with LLMs (2 minute read) Engineers need to start thinking about safeguarding design intent and maintainability as LLMs begin democratizing coding. Mercury's Path to Product-Market Fit — Do the Hard Part First (21 minute read) Mercury, which now serves more than 200,000 companies, is valued at $3.5 billion. Optimizing repos for AI (4 minute read) Optimize repositories for AI by increasing static analysis, using 'just' for repeated agent commands, and organizing documents in a folder and referencing them in agent instructions. Directives and the Platform Boundary (14 minute read) The current trend of using framework directives risks a more fragmented future of dialects defined by tools rather than standards. How do I delegate when I can do it faster myself? (16 minute read) While a manager's work may change, the analytical mindset remains. Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS (2 minute read) The entire infrastructure space is owned by only a few players with no realistic alternatives. Love TLDR? Tell your friends and get rewards! Share your referral link below with friends to get free TLDR swag! https://refer.tldr.tech/7c97ce4b/ Track your referrals here. Want to advertise in TLDR? 📰 If your company is interested in reaching an audience of tech executives, decision-makers and engineers, you may want to advertise with us. Want to work at TLDR? 💼 Apply here or send a friend's resume to jobs@tldr.tech and get $1k if we hire them! If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email! Thanks for reading, Dan Ni & Stephen Flanders Manage your subscriptions to our other newsletters on tech, startups, and programming. Or if TLDR isn't for you, please unsubscribe.